Blood is Thicker than Water
by Suitslover14
Summary: A blood test for a germophobic Louis reveals something interesting about the duo we all love. Rated T just in case I do not own Suits, if I did, Mike would know that Harvey cares for him by now


**A/N I am so sorry! Gah, school and tests and art and tests and spring and events and graduations got in the way. I'm so sorry that I haven't posted anything recently. I'm coming to the end of my 8****th**** grade year and it is crazy. Anyway, I worked really hard on this prompt from Jommy26 and I really want you to review because it took a lot of my little free time and I wrote it for you guys. **

"Everybody listen up!" Louis gruffed, attracting the attention from his Pearson Hardman associates. "Recently there has been an outbreak of mono, so all of you 'love bugs' have to get tested, they will run a full series to rule out anything else. Plus, here's something neat to entertain you incompetent people, they will also test to see if you are related to anyone in Pearson Hardman. Cross your fingers and hope that you are related to ME, because if you are that means that you will be the prettiest, most intelligent lawyer there is, besides me, of course."

The associates groaned in response and I rolled my eyes, irritated at the loss of some of my time. I had a stack of files to complete for Harvey by 5 o'clock for the Gunderson case and I had 2 stacks for Louis that was due by 7 o' clock. It was already 4 and I had only made it through half of the Gunderson Files, I knew that if I booked it I could finish it in an hour. But now half of my hour was going to be wasted giving blood because Louis was afraid of catching mono-or apparently anything else he was having us tested for- and wanted to torture us by having it tested for heredity to see if we had any relatives. Well newsflash Louis, I don't have any family. My parents died when I was 11 in a car crash from a drunk driver, and recently my Grammy had passed away. That was the only family I had ever had, and getting tested for heredity wasn't going to change that-no matter how much I wished it did.

I sighed and got out of my black chair. I looked around my grey cubicle at the photos of Grammy and the few photos that I had from Jenny. I smiled at the memories provoked by the photos, in a better mood and in desperate need of coffee; I walked through the beige halls of Pearson Hardman to the small, yellow break room. Rubbing my eyes of the sleep I was in need of, I grabbed the pot and filled it with water. I then retrieved the coffee from the small, grey fridge and made a fresh pot. I closed my eyes, happy for the small moment of rest, only to have them pop back open by a slamming on the table. I looked up, my eyes wide from the sudden movement to see myself looking up at Louis.

"I pay you to work, not sleep. What the hell are you doing in here? If that photographic memory of yours doesn't remember let me remind you, the files are due on my desk in a few hours and you are sitting here in the break room doing nothing." Louis snapped, his brow furrowed.

"Actually Louis, I am getting this magical drink that gives people energy after they have pulled a couple all-nighters." I had stayed up the past few days to finish Louis' files and didn't feel like humoring Louis.

"Just for that comment you get to be tested first." Louis snarled, gripping my arm so hard the circulation was cut off. Louis pulled me out of the break room and I let out a yelp. We passed Harvey, his brow furrowed with confusion yet a determined spark in his eyes.

"Louis what are you doing with _**my**_associate?" Harvey questioned harshly. "He has a stack of files due for me in 45 minutes." I groaned, I had already lost 15 minutes that I could have used on the files. Louis loosened his grip as he whirled around to face Harvey. I breathed a sigh of relief at the blood flow but soon the pins and needles set in and I tried not to squirm as Louis and Harvey argued.

Tired and impatient, I tried not to nod off during their heated debate. But I was losing that battle, my head kept drooping and then I would be rudely awakened when it hit my chest. I was losing energy fast, earlier I was working, the momentum keeping me going. But now that I was stopped, the constant adrenaline was dissipating and 3 days without sleep was catching up. I didn't know how I was going to make it through the blood drive and get the files done with an empty tank of gas but I was going to have to figure it out and fast. Shoving Louis' hand off my arm, I sat down. My legs were tired from standing and in my sleep deprived haze accidently had grabbed my bag before going to the break room. I rooted passed the contents in my bag and pulled out the Gunderson files. If they were going to just talk and waste time I was going to use it to finish the files for Harvey.

….

"Is he okay?" A rough voice cut through the darkness.

"I don't know did you see what happened?" Another deep voice snapped.

I opened my eyes to see Louis and Harvey leaning over me. They both breathed a sigh of relief but covered it in their own ways. Louis grunted and got back up, snickering that I had fallen asleep on the cold, carpeted floor of the hallway. Harvey just rolled his eyes and muttered something that sounded an awful lot like '_only you, kid_'.

"What time is it? Did you guys stop fighting?" I asked my voice horse and slurred from the nap.

"Yes, sleeping beauty we stopped fighting. Now get up off the ground. That is not a good reflection of me." Harvey barked. But his words were more biting than his expression-and the concerned twinkle in his eye.

I stood up, blinking away the black dots that licked my vision. The nap seemed to last forever but now that it was gone I was left feeling more drained and groggy. So, when Louis escorted me to have my blood drawn I didn't fight; just sent a sheepish grin in Harvey's direction and ignored his disapproving look.

…..

Louis led me to the blood clinic. They had set it up in one of the smaller conference rooms. A small, blue one that always made me feel claustrophobic. He sat me down in one of the plastic chairs and for a few moments my headache eased, the dizzying pain from lack of sleep fading out. Until it came back again, stronger, ruthless, right as the needle pricked my skin. I broke out in a sweat, my blue eyes dazed with pain and my blonde hair hopelessly flopping down into my face. The nurse didn't seem to notice me breathing through the waves. _In. Out. In. Out. Stop…. In. Out. _Dealing with the pain was like a business man dealing with a cagy client, uncomfortable and took concentration. I barely heard the nurse say everything was over, just saw that she had waved me out of the chair. I sucked in a deep breath and wobbled on unsteady legs. I burst into the hallway, surprised to find Harvey there, looking grumpy and bored (not the grumpy and bored part just that he was there) I had to restrain from allowing a gasp to escape from my lips. Harvey and my relationship had grown over the past year. It seemed that we were almost brothers, similar in the way that we acted. But I didn't want him to see me like this; he would probably make some sarcastic comment from some movie. I ducked my head down, avoiding the brown eyes of Harvey and had almost made it to my cubicle. But someone had reached out and grabbed my arm, turning me towards them. The world spun and tilted from that motion and I saw a glimpse of slick, brown hair.

"Mike?" A deep voice cut through the fogginess of my mind, reminding me my mission to hide.

"What now Harvey, need help tying your shoe. Or do you think you can manage without me." I sniped, not as witty as I would have liked but it may still deter Harvey.

"Go home." Harvey said. Blunt and to the point.

"What?" I gasped, my head whipping up and my face contorting in a small grimace as pain rocked through my skull. My legs started to drop from beneath me but I stabilized, and blew it off as a stumble.

"Go home, get rest. I don't need you dying on me. What good is a genius associate who turned their brain to mush?" Harvey replied, spinning me and shoving me into the empty elevator. "And don't even think about riding your bike home. Call a cab like a normal person; you are starting to look as young as Peter Pan!"

I waved him off, my energy drained. With a small grin on my tired face I headed home for the night. Little did I know the magnitude of that whole day.

…

5 weeks, a Louis attack, a Harvey defending a Mike, and a breakup between Mike and Jenny later

…..

I took a deep breath and walked out the elevator doors. It had been a week since Jenny had dumped me; she was really the only person I had left. Sure Harvey and I were getting closer, he had defended me against Louis, but I still didn't feel like I could trust him all the way. I longed for Trevor back, not the Trevor that turned me in, but the one in sixth grades who made paper airplanes with me and put up with the "nerd". I turned the corner and almost ran into Rachel.

"What the hell?" I asked, my eyes going wide at the sight. There was a line stretching across Pearson Hardman and I realized that the results of Louis' pointless- and probably illegal- search were up. My co-workers were lined up anxious to see them, like actors waiting to find out their rolls.

"Mike!" A loud voice boomed over the crowd and I glanced up to see Harvey charging towards me, jaw set and shoulders wide. Harvey looked pissed and I stopped to think if I had done anything to make him mad. Coming up with nothing I looked back up, he was closer now and I could see a determined streak in his brown eyes, I could see the shininess of his gelled back brown hair.

"Yeah." I squeaked, I was frightened now, he was coming closer and I still didn't know what I had done. He stopped in front of me and leaned in. I could smell his spicy cologne that Donna had picked out for him and was reminded of Jenny's cinnamon gum. My heart sunk at the memory, momentarily forgetting about the former baseball player strolling towards me.

"We need to talk, now!" Harvey growled.

I furrowed my brow. What had I done to upset him, he was fine last night and he was looking at the list this morning. The list! My brain screamed at me, of course something was wrong with the results. But what was wrong with them. I was plunged deeper into a sea of questions, my genius brain making them quicker than I could provide any answer. I felt dizzy and the world swam around in my vision. We entered Harvey's office and I immediately went to the couch. I had to sit down or my legs would provide a quick fall to the plush mocha carpeting in Harvey's office.

"W-what's wrong with the results?" I sighed, I needed to know. My parents died when I was young but I knew that they had a couple medical problems. My dad had high cholesterol and my mother. Well, my mother had leukemia when she was younger.

"Mike, look at me." Harvey said with hints of concern and I realized that I had zoned out after stating the obvious. I looked up and Harvey visibly relaxed, his shoulders slumped back to a more human position and his eyebrows had returned back to their normal position. "There was something on the results but….." Harvey trailed off, looking at me in a fleeting glance. Sweat beaded on my brow, I had to know if I had contracted anything from my parents, if I had cancer. "Well. Mike, you and I….. We're related." Harvey blurted.

My mouth opened and closed, opened and closed. Like a fish gasping for breathe on the fatal shores of land. My breathing got faster and my heart thumped in my chest. My brain was on overdrive. I had a family member alive. Not any family member but Harvey. How could we be related? I didn't have any siblings, unless I was adopted or my parents put a child up for adoption. But they wouldn't do that would they? My vision was becoming hazy around the edges and firm hands gripped my shoulders.

"Mike! Breathe! You have to breathe! Dammit, you are not allowed to pass out on me. Mike, can you hear me. "Harvey was shouting in the distance and I tried to obey, forcing myself to slow my breathing. "Better?" Harvey's voice rang out.

I nodded my head. I was beat, exhausted; even though I had just gotten here I felt like I had run a marathon and won a few court cases. My head ached and my eyes stung from worried tears. But I wouldn't let them fall because if I did, Harvey would know. Harvey would know that I was afraid of losing him, because he was the only person left.

…

We both knew we had to talk before either of us had opened our mouths, th questions loomed in front of us, creating a gap the size of the grand canyon. We were both lost, our personalities drowned out by the weight of it all. We were related, Harvey and I were related. We shared the same blood, DNA, the same intelligence and the same somebody. Someone had to link us.

"What now?" I croaked.

"We figure out how." Harvey answered bluntly.

I tried to think of ways that we could find out. We could go back in our family history and see if we shared an uncle or a great-grandparent. I sighed, knowing that wouldn't work. After breaking the news, Harvey had explained that we were close relatives, a 92% match for genes. That meant only two things; he had to be my sibling, or my father. I closed my eyes, I was ecstatic. Really, but it was a shock to find out that Harvey-my mentor, my savior- was related to me. It was hard to take in and I knew that Harvey felt the same way. His jaw was set and he was staring into space, deep in thought, as he would be on a difficult case, or a prank war with Louis.

"M-maybe, our parents…." I trailed off, unable to complete the sentence, unable to face the reality that my parents weren't perfect.

"Not possible." Harvey replied, knowing where I was going.

"Did you ever….. Um, well =. Could you be my father?" I blurted out awkwardly, not knowing how to state it any way possible.

"Mike, I am only 14 years older than you, how old do you believe me to be. I have a brother who is 36 and only 4 years younger than me for God's sake." Harvey snapped, irritated.

"Well if you are not my father and you say our parents didn't cheat with each other, then how the hell are we related?" I replied, exasperated. I wanted to know what was going on, and I wanted to know soon.

I haven't had family for a long time. Or any family that held active interest, without being forced to. My Grammy looked after me once my parents died…. And I loved her and she loved me but whenever I was with her, when she had to take care of me, she always had a look of _I was done taking care of children_ on her. If Trevor got me into Trevor or I was injured playing basketball with the other street kids (I could beat the Harvard Drones any day) she would just sigh and tend to me. Always a little upset over the little things it took to raise me. She was old, we both knew that, and she really didn't want to take care of me. But we made it work and as time grew on, we became closer and closer until she really was my family.

I cleared my throat. It had been a couple months since my Grammy had passed away but every time I thought about her and what she meant to me tears pricked my eyes and my breathing became labored.

"My mother told me a story when I was younger; I think this might clear a few things up." I offered, remembering the cheerful stories of past loves my mother liked to share.

"Why didn't you offer it up earlier?" Harvey snaps and I turn my head away to hide the few tears that escaped-she was my mother and she was taken from me too soon after all.

"I didn't think of it." I sighed, desperately trying to hold back my emotions that wanted to pour out. I had to be strong; it was _Harvey _who I was in front of. "She told me that she met this man when she was 18. They fell madly in love; they were going to get married. Until, he got her pregnant and didn't seem to want to be with her anymore. That's when she met my Dad; he helped her with the baby until her due date. A few months after baby Ashton was born, the father came back and demanded custody. They went to court but because my mother wasn't married, was still in college and the father was 24 and had a steady job and home, he won. She never saw him or baby Ashton again. She said that the man's name started with a G….."

"Gordon?" Harvey growled, he was seething by now and his jaw had to be sore, he was clenching it so hard, the bone had to be dust by now.

"Maybe. I think so…." I replied, cautiously glancing up at the older lawyer; the older brother.

"You have an eidetic memory how can you not remember?" Harvey was shouting now and heading towards his scotch cabinet.

"It's photographic." I lamely whisper, drained of the energy it took to come up with a better response. "I'm not Rain Man, no matter how powerful you think my mind may be."

"Where did they meet?" Harvey's truculent response came barreling towards me .

"I don't know." I scoff, amused that he think I would know.

"You should, SHE WAS YOUR MOTHER!" Harvey yelled and any hint of a smile fell off my face.

Deep breaths, _Keep them in, you can't let him see you cry. Oh fuck it. _ I wiped at my eyes and bolted out of the office, leaving a speechless and shocked Harvey in his office. I was 10 when she told me and I wasn't even paying attention. I was watching PBS and reading while doing math homework. I was good at multitasking but even I could fully listen without losing focus on everything else. I burst into the men's room and sunk on a wall, sobbing and desperately trying to get it in control.

I hated to talk about my parents for extended amounts of time. My father always wanted a boy who would play sports, who would watch a football game while holding a trophy and in football gear. He wanted a son who would become an architect or a football player. But I was never built that way, I was lean and awkward, my limbs too long to have control over. Only after they died did I start playing basketball with the street kids. He would have been so proud when I told him; I could almost see the smile of his freckled face, his blue eyes gleaming with pride, and a hand clutching at his fiery red hair in excitement. And my mother was the perfect women. I loved her and she loved me. While my father was nerdy and athletic my mother was a creative free spirit. She never wanted to settle down in one place so we flitted across the country. I was born in Florida, then we moved to Maine, and settled into New York when I was 6. That's when my father got a job there, so she settled down and opened a studio. I remember the day where I would sit and watch her paint, her long blonde hair pulled into a ponytail and a paintbrush behind one ear. Her mischievous brown eyes twinkling with an idea for painting. My favorite was one of her and my father. He was celebrating the day he met her, she was hanging upside down from a tree branch. Her pale skin illuminated by the sunlight. And a camera posed in her hands, ready to strike when the moment came.

I was sobbing more and more, the memories attacking me, surrounding me and burning my chest with a longing. A longing to smell my mother's vanilla perfume and to bury my head into one of my father's argyle vests, a longing to go home. But, the thing was, I didn't have a home. I didn't have a family. Just as that thought hit me full force, knocking me down and filling my lungs with bitterly salty and bleakly cold water, Harvey came into the bathroom.

"Mike?" Harvey quietly asked, as if I were a mouse, too timid to take my name at full volume. I sucked in a breath, and wiped my cheeks dry, trying to regain some of my composure and dignity.

"Yes Harvey?" I sighed, my voice raspy and low from the tears.

"Mike. Thank God, I didn't think that I would ever find you."

"It's a building, Harvey. How hard is it to find a nerdy associate?" I retorted, looking him in his bold brown eyes. They commanded attention; as if you looked away you would be disrespecting him. It was one way he broke lawyers, his brown pools sucking them in and drowning them in his thoughts, as if they were flimsy cards, easily ruined by a little pressure.

"Mike, I'm sorry. I was angry, not at you. I was angry at my father, at my life. I had a little brother, one other than Marcus, who was lost, without his parents, and needing some attention, half a city away half my life and I never knew it." Harvey apologized, dragging a large hand over his clean shaven face.

"Well if it helps, you weren't the one without parents." I replied, allowing an easy grin to adorn my face.

"Yeah I guess so." Harvey chuckled.

We stood like that for awhile longer. Side by side, lawyer by lawyer, brother by brother. Maybe I had always had a family, I just hadn't known it. I let that thought was over me and fill we with joy as we walked out, ready to face the world, like Loki and Thor before they ever split up.

**A/N Okay, so what do ya guys think? Do me a favor and review! They really make me want to put the effort into making my stories as amazing as possible. I have not edited this one-shot so if you find any mistakes, good for you! I'm human, and I didn't have time. But feel free to kindly point them out and I will fix them as soon as possible. Y'all have a great day!**


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